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R. William Rogers is an American author from Colorado best known for the writing of Christian Westerns. However, his writing interests have not only been limited to the genre as he has also written about gold mining, Civil War, Sports and Adventure novels in his “Settlers of South Park”, “Cripple Creek Mining District”, and “Saga of Willard Hansel”. Nonetheless, his most known work is the “Arkansas Valley” series of Christian Westerns the first of which was Toward A New Beginning that was first published in 2002. Before he became a fiction writer, Rogers served in the US Air Force for half a decade during the Vietnam War as a jet fighter mechanic. He now lives in Widefield Colorado with his wife, five daughters, granddaughters and an adopted grandson. He is currently retired from the Army and writes whenever and wherever the bug hits him.

R. William Rogers’ first dive into fiction writing was in 1997 when he was on a vacation in the Sangre De Cristo Mountains. During this time, he had been reading a lot of the works of Evangelist/Author Al Lacy. He wrote his first novel in the “Arkansas Valley series” “Toward A New beginning” on a notepad, and was surprised when his family and friends gave the draft rave reviews. Diving into the task, he polished the draft and what had been a tedious task soon became a joyous and exciting experience that launched one of the most popular Christian Westerns ever. He credits his entire career to Al Lacy his mentor who inspired him to pursue a career in writing after he had lunch with him and picked his brain. It was not long after his sit down with his mentor Al Lacy that he self-published his first ever work “Toward A New Beginning” whose introduction was written by Mr. Lacy. The novel was the recipient of several awards including nomination for the Christy award and an Excellence in Christian Fiction in 2003 for his debut novel. Since then, he has published more than twenty novels over his career.

“Settlers of South Park” is similar to many of R. William Rogers many Christian novels in its depiction of life on the Western frontier. The series is set in the 1800s, where many people would leave the lands on the Eastern seaboard of the US to go start a new life in the Wild West. Many people are following a dream of having free wide expanses of land where they can farm, last prosper, and at last have something they could call their own. Leaving behind the increasingly hard and poverty-stricken lands of the East, they head west. The novels mix in romance among the stories of the life and times of families and communities that moved to tiny cities of the frontier, taking only meager belongings to set themselves up in their new homes. Since they are Christian reads, they incorporate a lot of faith based philosophy that includes prayer to God to guide them on their trek and protect them from the dangers that include Indian raids, lack of food, accidents and any other mishaps. In the new land they still have to face life of raids from Native Americans and outlaws that make life difficult in the relatively lawless Wild West. But through it all is a fantastic narrative of steely pioneers seeking a better life out west, who muddle through the banditry, war, cold winters and hardship through reliance on love, romance, and their Christian faith.

“A Dream Fulfilled” is the first novel of the “Settlers of South Park” series of novels. The novel is set in the mid of the 19th century, when life in the Kansas plains was a hard as it could be. To add to the misery are the attacks by the Comanches, a marauding band of thieves that made the possibility of life in the Wild West seem very appealing. After the natives take the last of his cattle and dash his hopes of ever making a prosperous life for himself, Jacob Clarkson packs up his belongings and begins the trek to the Colorado grasslands. He has heard promising stories of the wild expanses of land that would enable him to start anew. The journey is fraught with dangers of banditry, high waters, and harsh weather that is even more complicated when one of the members of their caravan is kidnapped by a band of thugs. Through all of it, they depend one heir faith in God even as romance blossoms between Becky and Seth the son of Emily and Jacob. Meanwhile, another child of the family, Sam gets into a romance after some mix up brings the beautiful; Liz Carnes into his orbit. In all this the families of the Kansas plains remain determined in their quest to establish a foothold in the rich lands of Wild West Colorado.

“Divine Discovery” the second novel of the “Settlers of the South Park” series continues the story of the families of the South Park Basin. The Swansons and Clarksons have finally managed to gain a foothold in the land but now need to build on it. Life gets complicated by the illness of Becky, which leaves her fiancé Seth Clarkson devastated and worried for his intended. Things only get worse when crime rises to a crescendo with the widow Johnson killed in cold blood and the bank in the nearby small town robbed by rifle toting outlaws in broad daylight. The Clarksons that had become the main suppliers of beef to the many gold mine encampments in the nearby mountains now find a new focus. With insecurity threatening their business, they have to help the sheriff nab the thugs. It is not long before the thieves come back after their money runs out. However, this time the town is waiting for them and they are going to find it harder to terrorize the town like they had before. They only manage to get away after kidnapping a member of one of the prominent families in town. It is now up to Sheriff Weston and a brother to the captured man to track down the outlaws, who have gone into hiding in the rugged reaches of the mountains where they await a ransom. Meanwhile, the wives of the men involved will not sit by as the men get all the glory as they join in the fight to bring back their husbands safely.

Jack Reacher is back! Personally I thought this was the 2nd best Reacher book yet. The latest book in the Jack Reacher series, Past Tense, came out November 5th. Family secrets come back to haunt Reacher when he decides to visit the town his father was born in. Why? Because when he visits there he finds out no-one with the last name of Reacher has ever lived there. It leaves him wondering - did his father ever live there? More Details.

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One of my favourite series is the Brilliance Saga by Marcus Sakey and it is our featured series of the month. It's just an incredible light sci-fi series that fans of "Dark Matter" would also enjoy. It's free on Kindle Unlimited too! More Details.

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Our author of the month is Canadian author Opal Carew who writes erotic romance novels. Opal has written over 100 novels with multiple book series such as the Dirty Talk series and the Abducted series. If you’re a fan of erotic romance, be sure to check out Opal Carew.

Did You Know…

Bernard Cornwell attempted to enlist in the British armed services at least three times, but was rejected on the grounds of myopia.